Castilian Spanish Verbs:
Lesson 5: The position of the accent
Generally, a word is accented on a single syllable.
The accented syllable is spelt with an accute accent (΄). But if the accent
falls on the syllable that is usually accented, the acute accent is usually not written.
- For words ending in a vowel or s or n, the usually accented syllable is
the last but one.
- For words ending in any other consonant, the usually accented syllable is the last.
Why is this? In an earlier stage of the language, most words ended in a vowel or s or
n, and were accented on the syllable before last. Then the vowel e was lost from
the end of many words, leaving forms with other consonants at the end which were accented on the
last syllable:
Older cantáre became cantár 'to sing'
Older cantáde became cantád 'sing (imperative plural)'
Older animále became animál 'animal'
These words are written without the acute accent as cantar, cantad, animal.
The combination of u, i or y with another vowel-letter is usually considered
as a single syllable. Before another vowel-letter, u takes on the sound of English w:
puesto sounds like pwesto and cuidado sounds like kwidado.
So, according to the rules above, agua is two syllables, sounding like AG-wa. The
letter u is not considered a vowel here, and does not form a syllable of its own: wa is
considered one syllable. This word has the accent in the usual position (the last syllable but one,
ag) so the acute accent is not written.
Before another vowel-letter, i or y takes on the sound of English y:
sitio sounds like SIT-yo. Again, yo is considered a single syllable here, so the
accent is on the last syllable but one (sit), and no acute accent it written.
The letters u, i and y also have these sounds after other vowels. The spelling
au is like a followed by w, producing a vowel something like that in English now.
The spelling ai or ay is like a followed by y, producing a vowel something like
that in English eye.
But u, i and y can have their 'full' vowel status next to another vowel if accented:
bebía sounds like bev-I-a and país sounds like pa-IS.
